Scorched Space
by SimonJester479
Summary: At the fall of their race the Protheans vested their final hopes in their Vanguards to safeguard the future of their race.  The actions that they took would shatter the path that the future would take forever altering the balance of power. Very AU.
1. Relic

**AN: Long time no write, first dabble into the ME realm. Come along for the ride. While not strictly a cross-over given the lack of a category for this I do incorporate strong influences from a myriad of other genres although the main source is from ME, albeit an AU version. If you guess them all you'll get a cookie! This is a non-profit fiction and I maintain intellectual property rights to just about none of this.**

_They have come for us._

_Our time in this universe is ending._

_***__**Distorted Fragments**__***_

_The Devouring Ones spread like a plague along the arteries of our empire. They appear with no warning and pierce our defenses with hardly an effort. This is a disease of the heart and indeed from our heart they spread their tendrils of destruction._

_Our greatest achievement is now our __downfall. The Crystal Palace which we inherited from ages beyond our ken; that which raised us up from meager beginnings, but now is the pinnacle of our failure. This bastion, this****__**Untranslatable**__**** citadel; how could we have known it would be our to__mb?_

_The Caretakers__*****Distorted Fragments*** **__we should have been more aware of their machinations. For millennium they've tended the seat of our empire with nary a noise; ever present but beneath our arrogant sight, how could we have seen their betrayal w__hen they've existed before we ever ventured into the stars?_

_But our time of arrogance is over__*****Distorted Fragments*****__. The Devouring Ones appeared from the void and consumed the best and brightest that our race had to offer. Now they spread unchecked**__*__***Untranslatable**__****. We've fought these ****__**Untranslatable**__**** for decades since they broke out into our skies; our worlds wither under the unrelenting assault as the scattered remnants of our once mighty race desperately tries to survive. _

_The Devouri__ng Ones pillage our worlds and enslave our minds; entire systems have devolved into madness as brother has fought brother in a __******Untranslatable******__ haze of wanton lunacy. Their ships sing a siren's song into the void breaking infecting our senses and se__nding us into the horrible depths of civil war as the __******Untranslatable******__ leisurely corral and consume our exhausted people._

_There are but a few of our worlds left on the fringes of our once glorious empire. It is the strange will of the Powers that t__hese last holdouts hold the cipher of the riddle which has destroyed us. Relics left by a race extinct __*****Distorted Fragments*** **__had even been conceived gift us with the horrible knowledge that we were not the first, that we are not alone in our downfall._

_This is not the first time the Devouring Ones have scoured that galaxy of life and the relics hint that it has happened many times before. It is a bitter consolation to learn that this nameless race too fell victim to their inheritance of what would become the heart of their great civilization or how death spread along the same paths as it does now with us._

_Our race is on the brink of destruction and now we only try to survive. Some of us try to hide away in the uncharted reaches of the void or freezing themselves beneath the bedrock of hidden fortresses hoping to elude our hunters. _

_But WE will not._

_The Vanguards of ***__***Unintelligible***__**Empire will not go __quietly;__ we will uphold our vows now for both our people and those to come. We might not be __able to cure the infection in righteous battle but we shall buy time for our people to find new worlds, to find places beyond the reach of the Devouring Ones._

_Let these words be enshrined as a monument of our last act of defiance against those that bring doom to our worlds. For let all who shall gaze upon this statue know that the last of the Vanguards have dispatched themselves to do what is necessary in a final act of glory to preserve our people._

_**__***Distorted Fragments***__**_

_Our last brigade, almost 4,000 souls, has departed to the far reaches of the galaxy. With our blood and with our steel we shall shatter the network that binds the galaxy together. With every gateway that we destroy we shall stymie the invader, slowing them down to allow our people to flee. _

_With the Power's help we shall destroy the source of the plague; we shall set fire to what was once the pinnacle of our power._

_We shall shatter the Crystal Palace._

_-Translation of stone fragments found in Oxford VII dig site_

_Probable Apocalyptic text_

_Archived for transmission to Terra_

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/Catalog file

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/ERROR

/Corruption in selected directory

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/Windows 20.4 is searching for solutions

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/Reboot Required

**AN: Just establishing the setting of this particular universe, the next few chapters will help with this as well.**


	2. A troubled start

**AN: I suppose somebody has eagerly awaited this latest install but I must warn you that this is an aberration as my workload is considerably lighter this month so I'll try to keep the writing up until work kicks back up in June. I appreciate all readers and the reviewers even more so, enjoy!**

_14 August 2180, New Huangpoa Military Academy, Agert II; McCragge system; Sector Secundus_

It is said that while style does not comport substance, it does reveal meaning. In that case what could be the meaning behind the style of this seemingly unimportant room? Pale sunlight filters through high glass windows revealing the tiny flecks of dust that are ever present floating about an otherwise sterile setting. The ceiling is adorned with nothing more than a single light whose strip of paneling gets lost amid seemingly identical ceiling tiles. The walls are similarly stark in their Spartan glory; a simple white coat of paint hiding untold years of use. The black tile of the floor is buffed and waxed to a shiny splendor reflecting the light off of its glossy surface.

The only furniture in the room is a simple wooden table whose worn surface and uneven sides betray its age. Three chairs sit on one side of it, all facing the room's only entrance.

While the tone of the room suggests an austere and serious, even a severe purpose, the architect certainly didn't intend to give it the feel of a magistrate's court. The current occupants of the room impart that supreme sense of finality and foreboding all on their own. Two of the occupants sit with a stiff air of command and dignity; starched and pressed uniforms of dark blue cloth bedecked with colored ribbons and medals all proudly proclaiming years of service and experience. Weather beaten skin craggy and lined from age and worry; if one man's skin wasn't of a darker pigment then the two could easily trade hardly losing any of their air and poise. Even their short crops of speckled gray hair looked as if they had been issued to them from a quartermaster. However despite their elder status and hard-bitten looks even these two men are uneasy at the presence of their compatriot.

The clothing and appearance of this lithe rather petite looking female is at stark odds with the two military men sitting to her left along the table. Her soft features and small mouth compliment her rather beautiful and attractive appearance; her pale unblemished skin seems to absorb and glow in the light giving her an almost ethereal quality. A short bun of raven black hair accents her ice blue eyes. A black leather great coat lined with vermillion thread, adorned with two small symbols, one on each of her shoulder boards. A single blue sapphire tear tracing its path down a golden skull over a field of crimson. Nothing impressive merely on its own but as a symbol of authority the silver eagles born by her two male compatriots seem as mere child's toys.

None say anything as they all patiently sit and look at the closed door on the other end of the room from them. Waiting.

::_Knock, Knock, Knock::_

"Enter!" Colonel Augustus Sinclair bellows out, disturbing the silence of the solemn room. He and his compatriot Colonel Hasoud Tharoor both open the plain manila folders laid out before them. The woman to his right does not.

The door opens and a dapper young man briskly enters and shuts the door behind him. As he strides across the black tile floor the crisp cracking sound of his black polished boots striking the floor beats out a steady cadence of resounding confidence and determination. His dark green uniform, crisp and tailored, sports only a few devices; his name over his right breast, a crest of a wreathed sword on a red and white field emblazoned on his left arm, and a single silver pip on each shoulder.

Exactly six paces from the table the young man snaps his heels together with an audible 'click,' and raises his right hand into a crisp salute: " Cadet Aspirant Shepard reporting to the President of the Accessions Board as directed. Sir!"

COL Sinclair briefly studies the cadet before him with a critical eye before returning his salute: "Stand at ease Cadet Aspirant."

He has the look of a Soldier, the colonel mused; smart, handsome, well-groomed, and with a certain insufferable air of competence. A quick glance at his personnel records revealed that one Cadet Aspirant Shepard was near the top of the pack of his peers of this year's graduating class at the New Huangpoa Military Academy: excellent marks, excellent physical evaluations, and a near unbroken string of 'Superior' merits in Situational Training Exercises. Clearly a stud as far as basic soldering was concerned but there was more needed than that if he hoped to ever be a leader. To his right COL Tharoor was similarly inspecting the motionless Cadet Aspirant for even the slightest deficiency in his appearance or bearing. The woman to his right merely looked on; bored and seemingly uninterested in the whole affair.

As was his privilege as being the President of the Board COL Sinclair had the privilege of the first question to the Cadet Aspirant before him: "Cadet Aspirant Shepard why are you here before this board?"

"Sir I am here to earn my commission in the ranks of the armed services of the Unified Human Republic!"

A simple and direct answer thought COL Sinclair but it certainly didn't distinguish him from any of the other dozen or so Cadet Aspirants who had come before the board today so far. As he thought over the plainness of this response COL Tharoor shot forward with his first question as quick as a viper.

"So you wish to earn a commission in the UHR? What then is the purpose of the UHR? I assume it is something other than handing out commissions to any number of young fools who think that merely marking time at an academy is some sort of qualification?"

COL Tharoor deliberately intended for his query to bite and be offensive while attempting to sniff for any sign of hesitation or weakness in the Cadet Aspirant. Too many of the young fools who came before the board assumed that merely because they had checked all of the necessary blocks they deserved to a commission. While it was impossible to weed out all of the poltroons this early in their possible careers, the attempt had to be made; if only to keep suspect characters from taking positions of great responsibility.

"Sir the purpose of the UHR is to guide Humankind throughout the stars by providing a coherent and rational government to uphold the laws, protect the people, and safeguard our unity. Without laws we would be in chaos and civil strife would destroy all that we have built. If the people can't be protected then we would be at the mercy of those forces that seek to destroy our great achievements. Without a unified Humanity our entire race would be faced with the prospect of forever being at war with ourselves. Therefore the purpose of the UHR is to be the source of means and protections by which Humanity can prosper grow."

The clarity of the answer and indeed the passion behind it visibly impressed COL Tharoor who leaned back in his chair giving the impression that he was satisfied with the reaction that his question had elicited from the Cadet Aspirant. As the colonels seemed to relax the woman on the far right of the table finally stirred as she leaned forward resting her elbows on the table before her, fingers clasped as her ice blue eyes suddenly locked onto the Cadet Aspirant before her.

"Cadet Aspirant, how did the UHR come into being?" This short and simple question caused both colonels to visibly stiffen as the implications of the question, especially given the source of the inquiry, were obvious to them and could possibly affect how the rest of the board would be conducted. Such a possibility was unappealing to both of them but... they knew the necessity of such things.

"Ma'am the UHR was formed after the chaos that followed the Second War of Centauri Pacification. Crews from the _UNSV Pax, UNSV Serenity, UNSV Alliance, _and_ UNSV Unity_ rebelled after receiving orders to only 'observe and report' as renegade forces of the former Russian Hegemony crossed over the DMZ and killed over 3 million EU colonists by destroying habitation domes and laying waste to the irrigation network. These rouge UN Peacekeeper vessels intervened by bombarding the Russian colony and military forces ultimately destroying all the remaining human settlements on the planet in the process. As news of this series of atrocities spread violence and chaos broke out on nearly every planet as the fear and uncertainty that came from the murder of an entire planet ignited hidden powder kegs across the known galaxy; the tensions that the colonists brought with them from Terra mixed with those that they created in their new homes."

"As Terra herself began to feel the dreadful rumble of tank treads it seemed like the whole future of the Human Race was in jeopardy. After nearly two years of destruction and with communications between the planets almost completely cut off the rouge UN fleet appeared in low orbit over Terra. The fleet had absorbed dozens of the planetary fleets of the colony worlds as they had been brutally pacified and by the time it appeared over Terra it numbered over fifty vessels including nearly all of the pre-war military vessels in service at the time of conflict. With this force they forcibly quelled the violence and declared a new government under a UN mandate; this was essentially a military dictatorship with the UN as a puppet body."

"This tyranny was overthrown in a coup months after taking hold of Terra by the Human Union Party who managed to establish an ideologically inspired fighting force whose goal of a peaceful and united mankind drove them to capture and destroy the entire peacekeeper fleet. The HUP then established the UHR and under their direction the UHR brought all the colonies back into the fold of a united and peaceful nation."

This textbook answer was rattled off without missing a beat by Cadet Aspirant Shepard. Every school child knew the founding story of the UHR and that lesson was driven home repeatedly in the academies. The simple meaning was how only a unified polity could prevent the great chaos of interstellar civil war from potentially extinguishing all human life in the galaxy. Even nearly a century after the founding of the UHR the majority of human worlds were too hostile to allow for large amounts natural population growth and many colonies only grew by absorbing influxes of migrants from Terra looking for a new beginning. The disorders prior to the founding of the UHR was marked by a sharp decline in human population as the colonies nearly disappeared as terraforming efforts collapsed and Earth herself suffered waves of famine as war destroyed farms and the means of transporting what food was available.

Shepard thought that his answer was sufficient but by this point he could tell that the unease of the two colonels before him had if anything increased. Their features had all but frozen stiff as if they were condemned men waiting on the hangman to select his rope.

"Cadet Aspirant you seem to have at least some knowledge of how our society was founded so tell me; how does the UHR maintain the peace?"

The cold intensity of the nameless woman's eyes betrayed a seriousness that gave Shepard pause. Even one such as him, the son of a middling colonist family of no political aspirations, knew about the undercurrent of power and how justice was done in the human worlds.

"Ma'am the UHR maintains the peace through the Commissariat. The Commissariat teaches citizens their duties to the body politic and enforces justice by guiding the Judges Arbiter. The Commissariat also protects humanity from the corruption and renegade tendencies of the old militaries by reminding Soldiers of their duty to the republic and when necessary acting as Judge Extraordinary."

By this time Shepard realized that the woman sitting before him was definitely not military. He had previously assumed that she represented the upper echelons of the Colonial Department which fell under the auspices of the Naval Ministry. Cadet Aspirants were not solely put into line units or staff positions; due to the dangerous nature or exploration and colonization appointments within the CD as regional inspectors or administrators were common enough paths in a Soldier's career as the need for strong leadership necessitated military discipline on the frontier. However the questions posed by this woman were definitely not geared towards identifying his fitness for a colonial billet; these questions were extremely political, an often dangerous subject for citizens of the UHR to broach.

"Judge Extraordinary… tell me Cadet Aspirant what does it mean? Why is it used?"

The woman's question was almost coy in its delivery but by now Shepard realized that the woman was probably a representative of the universally feared Commissariat; if she wasn't a commissar herself. Why was a commissar interested in where he took his commission within the UFR?

"Ma'am when a commissar acts in the role of a Judge Extraordinary it is to immediately restore the good order and discipline of military units by removing renegade elements by any means necessary. The necessity of this is born out in Terran history when frontier military elements started wars on their own authority and in the years immediately prior to the UHR when military forces rebelled causing initially a ghastly ground war and then a planet-wide genocide."

The woman simply kept staring at him; Shepard refrained from flinching underneath that unwavering gaze. Finally she relaxed her pose and reclined in her chair immediately returning to her benign disinterest in the whole proceeding that she had in the beginning of the board. With only a seconds hesitation the two colonels immediately picked up the slack and began questioning Shepard about everything from the deployment of troops in an assault, to interstellar trade in the colony worlds, to current theories in xeno-archeology. Finally the questions ended and with a brisk salute Cadet Aspirant Shepard was permitted to leave and await the results.

As the door shut the woman finally spoke again: "Gentlemen the Commissariat has no interest in this Cadet Aspirant. Do with him what you wish but I will not prevent his appointment. I do not think that he has any tendency towards dangerous tendencies at this time."

The two officers silently released a sigh of relief at those words. In this class alone they had already witnessed two Cadet Aspirants stripped of their status due to "potential renegade tendencies" while a third was immediately seized after exiting the board and whisked off to places unknown. As time wore on, they feared, the Commissariat would enforce an even greater scrutiny over the Cadet Corps to weed out those it deemed a risk; simultaneously they feared that the Cadet Corps was starting to drift farther into radical tendencies. Neither of these trends was reassuring, but their job was simply to determine the best position to place the next generation of officers within the UHR.

As they shared a silent accord on these thoughts the door sounded with another three sharp knocks.

"Back to it," COL Sinclair muttered before yelling across the room "Enter!"

**AN: Hopefully this gave you a brief look into the dystopia that is this Mass Effect universe and that this taste is leaving you interested for more. As a fair warning this story will be much grimier than many other fics out there and not only because many of the utopian elements of the game have been rescinded. As always I remain your faithful source of free entertainment, Simonjester. **


	3. First Contact

**AN: I must give credit to where credit is due as neither the Alderson Drive or the Langston Field are my own ideas, indeed they come from those masters of science fiction: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. These ideas come from the truly excellent book **_**The Mote in God's Eye**_** which I encourage everyone to read and I knew that they would fit in perfectly with my universe; indeed this work is greatly influenced by both this book and its sequel **_**The Gripping Hand**_**. Reviewers have already noted the influence of the Warhammer40k universe on this but in truth it is far more incidental than intended; that genre is truly universal in its scope and so many of the attributes of dystopia science fiction have been popularized by it that it is now the gold standard. As always all other intellectual property belongs to their respective owners and I'm merely borrowing them for awhile. I once again ask that you read and hope that you enjoy the work you see before you.**

_7 September 2180, Rydunya system, Sector Aurelius_

_RSV Hellh__ound_

_Defiance class Destroyer, Cerber__us Pattern_

_Length: __675 meters_

_Crew: 634_

_Armaments: (3) Spinal 45cm mass drivers, (4) 3cm M__aser__ batteries, (10) 2cm L__aser __turrets_

_Flank speed: __4__.4g_

_Mission: Exploratory Survey_

"Ship-master Izerkeny, bring us to a high-geostationary orbit of Rydunya III. Maintain current acceleration, there's no need for us to be wasteful with our fuel."

"Aye aye Skipper plotting solution now."

Ship-master Anastasia Izerkeny fed the data into the ship's navigation computer and scanned the possible solutions that it spit out. Astronavigation is a tricky business as a Ship-master had to account for dozens of different variables which could change at any minute. Solar winds and gravitational fields from planetary and non-planetary bodies would change based off of relative distances and the relative planes that they intersected; the acceleration of the ship's fusion drive needed constant attention as the drag caused by stellar debris hitting the ship's Langston field would constantly shift as the debris was slowly filtered through the protective field.

Finally she selected the most promising solution and with a few tweaks sent it back into the ship's computer to execute. Now all he'd have to do is monitor and correct if drastic changes were needed.

Suddenly the ship's scopes lit up like a Christmas tree.

"Skipper we have detected a massive burst of EM waves originating approximately… 2.4 AU beyond Rydunya III on a vector of 057 along the plane with a z-factor of +.04." This was Lieutenant Henry Valdez of the Stellar Observation unit attached to the _Hellhound_ for the Exploratory Survey mission. Normally the _Hellhound_ would be hard pressed to detect anything beyond one Astronomical Unit let alone determine the source that quickly with anything more precise than: "It's somewhere over there."

The Skipper, Lieutenant Commander Arnold Brighton, pondered this latest predicament. This was a startling change of pace for what had been a fairly quiet mission. Oh there had been a little bit of excitement when observing the asteroid fields between Rydunya I and II almost two months ago when an asteroid 0.24 the mass of Earth's moon almost destroyed one of the exploratory shuttles when it sheared off a 7km slab of rock after a meteorite impact along a particularly weak fracture line. But this was something else.

"Bring us to General Quarters and increase density of the field to 60%. Ship-master bring us to the source of the disturbance at 2.3g acceleration."

"Aye aye Skipper, 2.3gs."

As the ship's alarms started up bringing the crew to general quarters and warning them about the increase in acceleration Ship-master Izerkeny strapped herself in and braced her body for the increase in weight. The _Hellhound _was designed to be fast using its relative velocity to enhance the power of its triple mass drivers to literally punch through an opposing ship's field and then subsequently its hull. In space warfare destroyers and other mass driver centered ships would often fight as separate elements in a general fleet engagement. They'd accelerate through an opposing fleet's line firing their mass drivers and then glide along well outside of the engagement area in order to turn around while maintaining their high rate of velocity to make another run.

This also had the benefit of allowing the mass drivers to cool off after firing as even the highest grade mass driver in production was only capable of safely firing twice an hour; the energy needed to accelerate the 300kg projectiles through a ship's field would often overwhelm a ship's ability to vent the heat. In dozens of engagements during the Re-Unification drives of the past 90 years, ships had literally cooked themselves to death by over firing often rudimentary mass drivers in rapid succession melting huge portions of the ship into slag, baking crew members to death, and occasionally even rupturing the containment of their reactors.

As the _Hellhound _got underway her crew settled down into their stations and proceeded to wait and wonder over the coming hours as to what they would find as they slowly approached the target area and the source of the EM emissions.

_ISV Kallten _

_Scepter class Light Cruiser w/ME drive_

_Length: __850 meters_

_Crew: __845_

_Armaments: (__20__) Gatling Laser __turrets__, (__2__) __spinal mounted THANIX cannon__, (4) forward missile __racks_

_Flank speed: 2.4g _

_Mission: Secure Mass Relay_

"Commander, the long range sensors have picked up an unidentified vessel along an axis leading to us from the system's core worlds."

"Identify the craft and give me an ETA and re-scan for any possible Mass Relay signatures in this system, find out where this thing came from. We just found and secured the other end of this relay but it wouldn't prevent another relay network intersecting to this system on the other side of the local star's plane. I bet it's those damned Asari trying to circumvent the Hesperion Treaty again."

Commander Kyrene Vakarian spoke with a bitterness that only his scarred face could convey. He was young for his rank; the recent war had seen that rapid promotion was a fact of life. The fact that his ship was crewed at only 60% of its assigned strength even for a mission as critical as this was a testament that the latest war between the Turian Empire and the Asari Hegemony had been incredibly bloody.

Almost 20 years of brutal engagements which left over a dozen star systems devoid of sapient life was ended only with incredible difficulty; the Hesperion Treaty was nothing more than an admission of stalemate as both sides were too exhausted to continue and decided that it was easier to just declare each to have an exclusive zone of space rather than fighting to assert competing claims. Now two years later both sides were surreptitiously opening up and exploring to new regions to expand their power bases in preparation for the next fight in clear violation to the demarcated zones of control outlined in the treaty. However this region of unexplored space was supposed to be reserved for the Empire but it rested on the Empire's ability to effectively patrol the region to prevent squatters and rouge prospectors which the Asari were happy to covertly fund.

"Commander the makeup of this vessel is something that is not recognized by our database. Based off of the EM and IR radiance the ship should be the size of a tactical shuttle but the radiation from its drive's wake and the relative speed leads us to guess that it's a ship approximately 30% of our mass. However our scanners are having a hard time penetrating its shields and we're getting nothing more than its shield's radiance. ETA… 20 minutes."

Sub-Lieutenant Kelvarn Hyete the survey officer of the _Kallten_ was extremely perturbed as he relayed this information. Normally he was able to find stellar objects out at nearly 2 AU but now he didn't notice this one until it was damn near on top of them.

"Sub-Lieutenant are you telling me that you didn't notice an approaching vessel until it damn near on top of us? We've been in this system nearly 20 hours already! When you said you've detected an unknown object I assumed that we'd have at least 10 hours to allow the crew to rest and prepare. If you haven't noticed we've been on full alert since we've entered this system."

Kyrene was almost livid at this bit of news. His temper was legendary and his reputation as a ruthless leader had been only reinforced after the rumors of how he escaped from the Asari internment camp on Formahault V circulated among the fleet; rumors which he never publicly commented on.

Kelvarn quailed under the tirade of his commander's fearsome reputation but he went into a quick explanation that whatever sort of shields the ship had masked the ship's emissions spectacularly and what was even more disturbing was the speed the ship was making.

"-and sir they're moving at nearly 500km/sec and it doesn't seem to be slowing! They're still quite a distance out but they're barreling along right at us!"

"Madness," Kyrene muttered: "complete madness. Bring the shields up and alert the crew to battle stations. Load the missile racks and hail the vessel that it is in Imperial space and will be fired upon unless it stands to and allows us to board."

As the crew rushed to their tasks Kyrene mused as to what this vessel was. Certainly it was some sort of rapid response vessel with considerable stealth capabilities which suggested that there was a base nearby, most likely Salarian. Those amphibian bastards were neck deep in strange tech, both artifact and their own brand. Their reputation as a race of freelancers looking for a major score before they died made them dangerous competitors as they spread out and formed dozens of splinter groups which infringed upon other races' territories constantly.

But the fact that it was moving so quickly and not slowing down troubled him.

"Navigator put us on an intercept vector with the approaching object."

"Sir we're receiving a transmission from the vessel on multiple frequencies. It's in a language that the computer doesn't recognize."

"Whatever it is it's not slowing down."

"Sir what are your orders?"

Kyrene thought for less than a second. Whatever it was it was in violation of Imperial space and was advancing at an Imperial vessel despite warnings. The message package broadcasted by the _Kallten_ was in every known language in the galaxy, many of which were not stored in the ship's computer. It was easier to load pre-translated messages in a complete package rather than create a lingual database in a warship's computer system. The vessel had to have understood them; even the hive fleets of the Rachni were intelligible at first contact; not that it mattered because they immediately started shooting at the Salarians that found them but at least they were able to demand them to surrender first.

All the races that relied upon the Mass Relays had some means to communicate if only through the artifact trade language found on the relics and within ruins. The Mass Relays themselves were etched with the trade language allowing all the races who discovered them to at least have some means of talking with the races they found on the other end. No whoever this was they had understood the message and were defying it.

"Launch the missiles and fire the THANIX cannon when within range. All turret gunners standby for point defense to clear the debris; whatever is left of that thing when the THANIX cannon are finished with it will be plummeting along at an incredible speed and I don't want any large chunks of scrap damaging the Relay."

"Skipper there appears to be two signatures in the target area. One extremely large stellar object which I suspect was the source of the EM burst; currently the EM levels are much less but still off the charts. There is another object which I estimate to be slightly larger than us based off of mass, it was difficult to find with all the latent emissions from the larger object but at this range they are definitely a distinct object. They don't have a field raised so my readings are fairly accurate. Unknown make."

"Got it Lieutenant Valdez, what else can you tell me about that craft?"

"Not too much Skipper I'm reading all sorts of energy signals from it but the pattern that they're set up in is completely beyond what I've seen before… I'm receiving a signal from the vessel."

"Let's hear it."

The ship's speaker started to blare out a cacophony of sounds and signals none of them intelligible to either the crew or the ship's computer. Lieutenant Commander Brighton noted on his display that there appeared to be over a dozen distinct linguistic patterns within the transmission.

"I think that it is possible that we've just made first contact with an alien race. Prep and send the standard first contact package on all frequency bands, don't use the Maser signal relay they'd only perceive that as an attack."

The first contact package was a collection of greetings in a dozen of the major human languages and a collection of, what were hoped, benign and friendly images. The problem however came in the fact that it was a fairly large amount of information and the radio transmitter could only push out so much information, especially the images, so quickly. Use of the Maser signal relay would have certainly been able to transmit the data quickly but it required a proper receiver, other wise it was another form of directed coherent light which even at a low setting was more than enough to damage a vessel which clearly had no sort of protective field activated.

Suddenly the radar display lit up.

"The alien vessel has fired a torpedo spread at us! Helm adjust and initiate combat maneuvers. Gunnery give me a firing solution. Strengthen the field to 100%, Lieutenant Valdez tie your observation equipment into the Gunnery computers to give us a better picture of the outside world. All hands brace for impact."

The calmness that Commander Brighton showed was curious only to those unused to the initial stages of space warfare. Even at these speeds and the presence of of a hostile enemy firing torpedoes there were still almost 5 minutes before the torpedoes would even be able to be within detonating range of the _Hellhound_. Meanwhile she could easily adjust her course and evade this torpedo spread; the foolishness of these aliens to think that firing ordnance at this distance would be worth anything.

The minutes ticked by with the bridge of the _Hellhound_ staring at the radar displays. An outside observer untrained in space warfare would note that there was no visual display other than a small bank of computers by the wall that the observation unit had commandeered. The biggest conundrum that human tacticians had to cope with was the fact that the Langston Field blocked out nearly all natural signals and radiation both heading in and going out. This made passive scanning useless within the field looking out but made objects within the field extremely hard to find by normal methods unless it was actively using energy in an extravagant fashion.

This could be compensated for by "poking holes" in the field by raising sensors and other apparatus in a fashion akin to a blue water navy submarine. The Field itself didn't prevent motion or energy from passing through it but it acted like a huge wall of resistance almost like a jelly to slow motion down to a crawl by soaking up its motive force. In this fashion a micrometeorite or a slug from a mass driver could hit the field and then loose so much force that by the time it hit the hull it would be as worthless as a pebble; however, a periscope under constant motion could be pushed through.

However due to the nature of combat and the fact that cameras were easily damaged it was easier to build extremely powerful sensory equipment to compensate for the Langston Field's dampening effects. While expensive and often wasteful in most situations it was the best method that combat ships had of maintaining a lookout under a fully charged field.

In this fashion a black oval raced through space, the cold stillness of it broken only by the white blue fusion flame of it's engine which was carefully designed to focus the energy out of a designed funnel using the ship's protective field to guide the flame.

As the _Hellhound_ maneuvered in space to avoid the _Kallten's_ missiles she carefully kept herself aligned to fire the first volley from her mass drivers while accelerating to her flank speed of 4.4g. The _Hellhound's _field briefly shifted from black to a dull red as one of the missiles impacted just below its bow but the heat was quickly dissipated by the time she got within range to fire her mass drivers.

It is art to behold when mass drivers propel their 300kg rounds, with the relative velocity of the ship, to almost 700 km/sec.

As the _Hellhound_ shot through space towards the _Kallten_ she came under fire for less than a second before she shot past her quarry to begin her next firing pattern. _Kallten's_ THANIX cannon fired a brief salvo hitting the _Hellhound's_ field with a stream of charged molten metal turning the field from black to red in less than a second as the heat was unlike anything that the _Hellhound _had ever experienced with a directed energy weapon. However this was not even a scratch compared to what happened to the _Kallten_.

Gasping for air in the smoke, fire, and madness that was his bridge Commander Kyrene bellowed out for status reports. The response, from those who could, was unlike anything he'd ever expected.

Three massive hull breaches, twisted metal and vaporized bulkheads, power cut to over half the ship, fires reported on all decks.

As reports came in it became clear that the _Kallten_ was crippled. Over 300 confirmed casualties and the count was rising. Entire sections of the ship had been exposed to the void before emergency containment could seal the breaches. While it took a matter of seconds as the shield generators were still functional the result was scores of Turians were spaced without suits and dozens of compartments had all of their air sucked out of them suffocating scores more.

In short he was in command of a hulk with barely enough power to sustain life support, shielding, and artificial gravity and even that was fading rapidly as Engineering reported that it had to start abandoning the engine room as plasma fires were raging out of control from ruptures in the drive core shielding.

He knew the call that he had to make.

"Abandon ship. All hands board all available shuttles and try and make it to the Relay to warn the Empire."

Commander Kyrene stood and waited as his order was echoed up and down what remained of his command. As his bridge emptied none commented on how he remained at the helm gazing out into space at the fading black mass that had killed them. Kyrene waited, staring out into space wondering what was the nature of the beasts that had killed his ship. Finally as the rumble of the departing shuttles stopped echoing up the corpse strewn corridors of his ship he made his final act in command.

"Skipper we killed it. All three slugs punched through the target as if it were paper."

Victory. A funny way to look at it as after all this was first contact with an alien species; a species that fired in response to peaceful overtures but still...

"Ship-master bring us about and park us close to the wreck so we can find out what exactly we came up against."

"Aye aye Skipper."

"Skipper signatures are departing the wreck. Most likely escape shuttles given by how much air she's venting."

"Keep tracking them I want to know where these things are going so hopefully we can pick up a few of them by the time we make it back to the area. By the way Ship-master when will we be back in that general vicinity?"

"Skipper we should be back there and at an equivalent velocity in two hours."

"Alright I want the cutters prepped and the marines ready to board the wreck-"

"Skipper the wreck just experienced secondary explosions up and down the hull. She's breaking up."

"Belay that last, have the cutters ready for salvage operations instead."

**AN: A long chapter, hopefully it was enjoyable. Now to be forewarned I didn't actually crunch the math for the speeds and distances involved but I tried to give it an educated guesstimate so for you people with time to kill and math inclinations please be gentle. Reviews as always are welcome.**


	4. Gathering

**AN: Standard boilerplate on ownership/intellectual property, etc. I'm sorry about the time between updates but thing like life are unavoidable. I thank you all for your kind reviews and enjoy.**

_Transmission from: RSV Hellhound, Rydunya System_

_Receiving station: Whynil II, Sector Aurelius Armory _

_Classification: Immediate Action Required_

_Authentication: Vermillion-56-01742_

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_\Authenticated- Lieutenant Commander Arnold Brighton, RSN, Commanding_

_-Message Follows-_

_8 September 2180_

_Admiral Huang,_

_On 7 September 2180, Rydunya system, Sector Aurelius at 0823 Zulu time RSV Hellhound detected a large anomaly in the outer reaches of the Rydunya system. Upon investigation two objects of xeno-origin were discovered, one a large structure which was the source of the anomaly and a smaller ship nearby which was masked by the larger xenos object. Upon approach we were hailed by a message package from the xenos ship in a series of unknown languages. We immediately responded with the standard first contact package. However immediately after transmitting our package the xenos fired a missile barrage though at an extreme range. After a brief engagement with mass drivers the xenos ship was crippled with no damage to the Hellhound. By the time we returned to the hulk secondary explosions had destroyed much of the structure. Escape shuttles were observed leaving the hulk prior to explosions. Interference was too great to determine how many shuttles were launched but we did observe them "activating" the larger structure and then disappearing. Large structure appears to be some sort of interstellar transportation hub but it rests at no known Alderson point. Salvage operations begun. Request immediate reinforcement to secure system and investigate the xenos structure. Analysis of engagement and preliminary threat assessment follows._

_Lt. CDR Brighton_

_/_

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_/_

_Analysis of engagement between RSV Hellhound and Xenos vessel:_

_Xenos vessel launched a missile barrage at a range well beyond any missile system developed by the Republic even taking into account the Hellhound's approach vector and speed. Amazing accuracy given the circumstances but negligible effect. It needs to be re-iterated that these are missiles not torpedoes; the ordnance was extremely accurate to an extreme range and had the ability to find and track an approaching ship under field dampening even going so far as to compensate for our sudden increase in relative velocity by going to flank speed acceleration after missiles were launched. Limited payload compared to Republic torpedoes; most likely a long range weapon to deter small ship borne craft with high-maneuverability. Likely these Xenos have developed successful carrier based space warfare techniques if such a weapon as this has been designed._

_Xenos vessel fired an unusual direct energy weapon. It exhibited a high-EM frequency coupled with alloyed tungsten rounds to direct enormous energy in a short period of time. Despite being under fire for less than one second the Hellhound's field shifted alarmingly quickly into the red. These direct fire weapons are unlike anything in our arsenal; implied that we avoid prolonged direct fire fleet engagements if these sorts of weapons are the standard as their ability to overwhelm the Langston Field cannot be underestimated._

_Xenos have no apparent knowledge of the Langston Field or equivalent to reduce or absorb motive force. Unknown what sort of defensive capabilities their ships have but what they have is insufficient to defend against mass drivers under constant acceleration. Hellhound crippled the ship in one volley. Hellhound was under flank speed acceleration for less than 15 minutes and at only 2.3g acceleration for the previous 10 hours but still was able to exert enough force to completely overwhelm their defenses. Recall that the RSV destroyers in the Whynil I engagement required to be at flank speed acceleration for almost an hour and 2g acceleration for almost a day prior before they could finally penetrate the field of the Outie battleship SSV Valiant._

_It is unknown what sort of maneuverability/acceleration capabilities these aliens have as they barely seemed to accelerate at all during the engagement; most likely due to actual contact happening before we could safely decelerate and achieve a respective velocity and before they could accelerate at all._

_-Message ends-_

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_\_

_Transmission from: Whynil II, Sector Aurelius Armory _

_Receiving station: RSV Hellhound, Rydunya System_

_Classification: Immediate Action Required_

_Authentication: Magenta-72-12953_

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_\Authenticated- Fleet Admiral Jiang Si Huang, RSN, Commanding_

_-Message Follows-_

_8 September 2180_

_Report all findings. Battlegroup Kraken en route. Under no circumstances will you attempt to investigate the large xenos structure beyond passive scanning. You have successfully created the largest shitstorm in the Republic since its founding, congratulations._

_-Message Ends-_

_-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-  
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_24 September 2180, Palaven_

_Imperial Ministry of War_

Fleet Admiral Chellme Syter was disgruntled. The subtle flaring of her mandibles indicated the fact that she was just this side of furious with the news that she had received just this morning and her combative stance at the table sent a signal to everyone else that she was intent to beat someone, anyone, into submission to set things straight again. Her steely gray eyes noted the small cluster of decision makers filing into the cramped meeting room with nothing short of contempt.

How dare they! How dare they strip her of fully half of her force without even being consulted! Beside her Admirals Kouster bore a similar glare of outrage; she had heard that Kouster had both of his capital ships including his flag ship detached from his fleet without even an hour warning to remove his personal effects.

She privately suspected that these ships were being stripped from the core fleets to reinforce the border fleets. It was too easy for the commanders along the borders to demand forces to help patrol the waste lands they were assigned to due to the fact that border incidents with the Asari were increasing again. But didn't the fools in the War Ministry remember what had happened in the last war when the core fleets were stripped down to gunboats and missile frigates? The Hegemony had managed to slip in a small task force of three cruisers and a half a dozen destroyers; the result was two planets burnt to the bedrock and the entire economy of the Empire thrown into disarray for months as merchants refused to move without military escort.

However... looking across the room at the faces of Admirals Jothe, Verne, and Wrenz troubled her slightly; they seem to be glaring daggers over towards her and Kouster and muttering amongst themselves. If their fleets had gotten reinforced by gutting hers then what were they grumbling about?

A functionary at the door announces the entrance of the Hierarch and the small collection of Admirals scrambled to their feet. A distinctly harried looking Hierarch of War Venari Pallin fairly stalked in and sat down, waving his hand to dismiss the ceremonial announcement of his titles and honors throwing the functionary for a loop. The Empire was run on an elaborate system of ceremony to reinforce the hierarchy of being within the Empire's social structure; there was a place for every Turian and every Turian knew their place. For even one as exalted as a Hierarch to deliberately ignore it was unsettling.

"I know that all of you are infuriated right now but before you start talking as if you know what you're talking about I'm here to inform you that as of late last night the strategic situation of the Empire has just been thrown for a spin."

The assembled group of officers managed to make a surprising turn from simmering anger to a vague mix of horror and curiosity.

"Two weeks ago the _Kallten_ was sent through the recently discovered Relay in the fringe space of our territory in order to patrol the region and to evict squatters from our sovereign territory. She was destroyed shortly after entering the system with almost two-thirds of the crew killed in the resulting engagement. From the reports given by the survivors they were attacked by a previously unencountered race which refused to respond to our hails through the trade language. Unfortunately very little other information is available for this incident except for the verbal statements of the bridge crew that survived as the majority of the electronic records were unsalvagable."

Those assembled looked on with a mixture of horror and outrage. The loss of any Turian vessel was a horrible price to pay as the Empire was so weakened after the last war but the audacity of these aliens! Every race used the ancient relays and every race ever encountered knew enough of the common trade language engraved on the relays to at least respond ineligibly to hails made in the common tongue. To even use the relays relied on some knowledge of the language as the commands to activate the ancient mechanisms had to be in that tongue.

"The verbal reports of the survivors indicate a surprisingly brief and violent encounter in which the alien vessel moved at a speed which is needlessly wasteful in known space tactics especially if relying on directed energy weapons. However the exact means that they used to destroy the _Kallten_ is uncertain as the survivors reported structural damage consistent with the aftermath of Rachni pod attacks but without any of the associated unpleasantness."

Admiral Styer shuddered at this comment. During the war she had been part of a Turian punitive expedition into Salarian space to punish them for actions that Salarian mercs had committed in parts of their disputed space. Her task force had walked into the middle of a skirmish between a Salarian patrol and one of the splinters of the most recent Rachni hive fleet. She witness the Rachni ships launching "pods" of living matter which battered the Salarian vessels; one of the pods had the fortune to break through a Salarian frigate's shielding. It then burst open releasing a horde of Rachni spawn creatures into the midst of the crippled vessel. She still heard the screams of the victims over the communications channels in her sleep.

"To respond to this incident the War Ministry has assembled a punitive expedition to demonstrate the full power of the Empire to these miscreants. Given their demonstrated hostile nature we cannot allow them free access to a relay which leads to our domains. It is reasonable to assume that given their lack of knowledge in the trade language they've only recently discovered the use of relays and their racial zone will only span two or three systems. Our experience with the Volus attests to this. Perhaps when this species has been pacified they'll be a useful vassal race."

This was a reasonable assumption of assimilation as the first encounter with the Volus was colored with a similar incident. The first time the Volus activated their relay their expedition ran headlong into a Turian battleship. Needless to say after a short sharp war the Volus were now good subjects of the Empire.

The assumption of a small racial zone was also reasonable as there were so many of these dead end paths in the known relay network. Often relay lane networks grew very congested as bottlenecks occurred when multiple "branches" condensed into a hub system with no rhyme or reason. Some theorists claimed that there were surprising breaks in the way that the relay network was set up; certain scientists who specialized in the relays reported evidence of ancient furrows and scars on many relays. This led many of those with wilder imaginations to speculate that there was a major war amongst the creators of the relays which led to many of them being destroyed explaining why the current system seemed very spotty and incomplete. Indeed the borders of space faring races were mainly demarcated by control over bottlenecks in the relay system.

Admiral Styer rose with her colleagues as the Hierarch rose and dismissed the assembly. Her mind was clouded with thoughts about these revelations. The vast force being assembled spoke volumes about the uncertainty that the ministry found itself in. The fact that a Turian vessel had actually been destroyed was an indication that these aliens were not to be merely swatted and then subjugated like the Volus were. No she suspected that at least a few of their worlds would be burned to ash in retribution. Shrugging at the thought she continued to here office from which to plan out how her fleet would have to be distributed to compensate for the sudden shift of forces.

_-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO-_

**AN: As you might imagine, this universe has things playing out very differently than what we are used to. For those of you who like epic space battles and are curious about things will play out in this universe I hope you will be pleased with the next installment.**_  
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